Tampa, Florida
We took the 06:00 flight out of DSW to Tampa. Getting up at 03:30 is not easy. Especially after only getting to bed around midnight the night before, after attending a baseball game between the Texas Rangers and the Mets.
TPA, while smaller than Dallas airport, is also impressive and well organised. Collecting our luggage and walking straight out the exit, is just brilliant.
We were collected by Karen's sister Vanessa and headed for her home in Largo. Vanessa and Joaquin, her husband have a wonderful condo looking over part of the Atlantic intracoastal waterway. As you drive North you have the Gulf of Mexico on your left and the intracoastal waterway on your right.
This part of Florida is for beach and booze holidays. Nothing wrong! The beaches – or long long beach – on the Gulf side are clean, white and endless. And, because you're facing West, deliver the most stunning sunsets.
The West side seems to be the holiday accommodation (apartments, houses and hotels) side and the East side facing the intracoastal the entertainment side (bars, restaurants). So you can grab a swim in the warm water of the Gulf then just walk across the road to grab a tiki cocktail.
Other than just being Floridian, we did three major touristy things. The first was to eat at the famous Columbia Restaurant in Sand Key. There is something special about eating at a restaurant that sits next to and on-top of the intracoastal. It just feels Florida.
The second was a visit to Ybor City where we did a guided city walk.
Ybor was setup as a company town by Vicente Martinez-Ybor and was annexed by Tampa in 1887. Ybor initially setup a cigar manufacturing enterprise in Key West and, after labour unrest, moved his enterprise to Tampa. Ybor was primarily populated by immigrants including a significant number from Cuba, Spain, Germany, Italy and Eastern Europe (Jewish communities).
The city's first blow was during the depression when demand for quality cigars declined. After the 2nd World War the city saw a further exodus of people as the government assisted returning servicemen with better housing and they moved out to the 'burbs.
During it's heydey though, Ybor was the wild west and operated as a city sized 'speakeasy' with gangsters, opium dens, brothels and booze being characteristic of the city. There's a cool history of the city on Wikipedia. During the tour our guide mentioned the "Ybor Tunnels" which were featured in "Live by Night" with Ben Affleck.
According to Steve our guide, these were built for smuggling. But when I asked "if there's no law, why did they bother?", he said "because of the competition between the gangs". Well alrightly. But this is a better description of the tunnels.
And chickens are protected! During the Depression chickens were brought to the city for food and, sadly, cock fighting. Left to fend for themselves when the city was evacuated in 1908 during the devasting fire, and then nearly thrown out when the city was being revived, the courts deemed the chickens to have come first and therefore had the right to stay. So wild chickens and roosters wander the city, which is a rather cute sight.
Gavin asked if people could take the eggs, "they eat drunk people's vomit and other stuff, so I wouldn't eat them" was the answer.
These pictures were taken at José Martí Park who led the Cuba's revolution against Spanish rule in the 1880s and 1890's. This park is still owned by the people of Cuba. So when you walk through the gates you literally walk onto Cuban territory. Not only that. When the park was built, soil from all the provinces of Cuba were collected and used in the building of the park. So you are also standing on Cuban owned territory and the soil of Cuba.
Ybor was very cool. But so was St. Petersburg ("Saint Pete"). We had a late brunch and Gavin experienced a Cuban Sandwich (which is basically pickles, ham, roasted pork and cheese). No wonder he's put on xxKG since being in the USA as he can't resist anything vaguely representing a reuben (there is photographic evidence here). But it was delicious. Then it was a trip to the Dali Museum.
They had a special exhibition including a 360° show in a dome. The only problem with this was that one doesn't have eyes in the back of one's head, and consequently habe a bad dose of FOMO as there is definitely, absolutely, 100%, indubitably some good stuff happening behind one's back!
The major exhibition, other than viewing the wonderful Dali collection, was "reimagining nature: dalí's floral fantasies". Totally outstanding and intriguing. Olé Olé!
Vanessa and Joaquin's favourite haunt is JD's. It has an outside bar with a live band (the band shuts down at 10pm due to Tampa's nuisance laws). In the inside is a piano bar where the massively talented Andrew holds forth.
Andrew has a Chris Rea type of voice: husky, gravelly, and soulful with a distinctive raspy quality. And he's awesome. And happy to have someone from the audience accompany him with a song or two.
All in all Tampa was great. We didn't see any "florida men" (which we should be thankful for!). But we did see his 'bakkie'.
